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A jam submission

The Light KeeperView game page

They say working the light shift isn't for those who have a dark past...
Submitted by Gwelkind, Eschen, EZIRA — 6 minutes, 40 seconds before the deadline
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The Light Keeper's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Concept#64.2224.222
Overall#74.0464.046
Use of the Limitation#74.1484.148
Enjoyment#113.8523.852
Presentation#163.9633.963

Ranked from 27 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team members
PixelPax (project management, programming, level design, modelling/animation, graphics), Eschen (programming, level design), AndreRoz+renejoseph (Music/sfx Composers),DieAnto(Pixel Art),CheapGrams.ttv(Pixel Art),Murapx(PixelArt),Jaya(Brainstorming/recruiting/misc)

Software used
Unity, Aseprite

Use of the limitation
Lighthouse operators; the air traffic control of the sea-- Who has less a lower tolerance for taking hits? Especially so for this special, manually-turned lighthouse operator: one crash, one monster, one slip up and it's all up in flames, protect those fragile ships at all costs!

Cookies eaten
In soviet Russia, cookie eat you. (Play to the end for some special twists!)

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Comments

Viewing comments 24 to 5 of 24 · Next page · Last page
Submitted

Great work! i quiet enjoyed that.

Some ships didnt have a "warning" sign though, for some reason. 

But all in all, good work! really like the graphics.

Only thing id change is the tutorial text, it disappeared before i had a chance to read it as i was trying to focus on the ship.

Developer

oh shoot, I'll make it last longer! That's great feedback, thank you!


Did you have ships crash without giving any warning? Sometimes ships will seem like they're on a collision course, but actually be aware of rocks and ready to steer around them. We used an a* pathfinding grid for this, so sometimes the fastest route is 2, tight, 60 degree turns around a rock (these guys are excellent sailors, heheh)

Submitted

wow what an amazing game! great job!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

This game has a really solid vibe to it that I enjoy, and the sound and visuals play off each other nicely! The concept is a cool idea too, it's simple to pick up yet fun to juggle keeping an eye on multiple ships.  While spinning the light around at a regular rate seems to let me cheese some of the game, I got a good laugh out of the realization that acting like an actual lighthouse can give good results.  Guess that explains why they spin like they do. XD

Anyway, this is solid work regardless!!  Great job!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

LOL yeah, I guess lighthouse operators have discovered the dominant strategy for this game. Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Gosh, this is AWESOME!! <33 I love it!! That art looks GORGEOUS, and the mechanic of guiding the ships by shining the light on them is awesome, this is such a clever take on the limitation!! I love it!! 

The music is wonderful too and adds so much to the whole feel of the game! This is so good, definitely one of my faves in this jam, this is awesome!! 

Submitted(+1)

Wow.  Totally exceeded expectations.  Wasn't sure what to expect from the splash/header (the pixel art for that specifically was very good but also very old school, so it's hard to know what sort of game to expect), but this game looks & plays beautifully.  The mechanic is suuupppeeerrr original & fun.  I also really like the very subtle audio queue when you're recharging your light (would be nice if it stopped at the max though so you could know when to release w/o looking at the UI).  In the final level, the contrast was pretty low when shining light at the ships which made them kinda hard to see.  </ramble>.  Awesome game, seriously!

Developer(+1)

Ahhh, yeah. Stopping the noise would be such a nice touch. You've got a good intuition for this stuff.

Submitted

What a great idea and amazing use of the limitation! I played for like 15 minutes and loved every second of it! The art, the atmosphere, the gameplay, everything is so well done! One of my favorites this jam!

Submitted(+1)

Proc: atmospheric music | many interesting mechanics (like monsters) | game progression (shop) | cool level design and difficulty curve

Cons: no in-game tutorial (but it's a really minor disadvantage comparing to all advantages) 

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Someone else mentioned the lack of tutorial too and I can't seem to reproduce it in any browser. Does this screen not show up when you start the first level? Anyways, thanks for playing even though this didn't come up, it can definitely be frustrating when games don't teach you how to play!

Submitted (1 edit)

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I meant tutorial about monsters and the fact  that when you run out of fuel your lighthouse goes out (I didn't notice that indicator in my first play) and also, that screen is shown, but it doesn't have text "Hold Right click to refill lantern" (I play browser version). And as I said these are minor things, because the overall atmosphere and gameplay give a lot of satisfaction.

Developer (1 edit)

ooo, yeah, it looks like it's cropped wrong too. There's clearly some messed up scaling going on for you. I'm not able to reproduce this on my end, though (that screenshot was from itch/Chrome).

Do you have browser zoom turned on or are you using some alternative browser/extensions? 

idk if you've ever released web versions before, but it  can be a real pain because each browser does things a little differently and browser zooms can mess everything up, unfortunately.  Yours actually looks like it's not obeying to the canvas pixel resolution specified on itch.

Submitted

Oh, yes, you are absolutely right. When I  don't click blue full-screen button in the right down corner, I see everything. But I don't have any zoom enabled. And also I use Yandex Browser, but as far as I know it uses chromium, so it should be similar to Chrome in such situations, but I may be wrong.

Developer(+1)

AHA! Thanks for helping me diagnose, you're the best!
 I'll see if I can find a way to remove the fullscreen option in Unity WebGL build.

Submitted(+1)

Wow... The music, the retro graphic, the art... That all is so awesome... The gameplay with a monster lurking in the dark sea... Great game! Keep up the good work!

Submitted
Deleted 2 years ago
Developer (2 edits)

Hey Becca, thank you for commenting! You can hold right click to fill the lantern with more fuel.  There are supposed to be instructions for this in the first level at the bottom of the screen, are they not showing up? I know some users have had issues with the canvas scaling strangely if their browser is zoomed in.

Submitted

I figured it out! But no, I didn't see instructions on turning off the light.

It was an enjoyable play, but I couldn't figure out how to get past the underwater thing coming for the light house.

Developer

Oh damn. Probably a scaling issue. Sorry about that! 

Any enemies you face, you'll need to shine a light on them to either stall them or make them go away. Thank you so much for playing! 

Submitted

Yes, it looked a little like a rock, perhaps, as it was rounded. But I thought maybe it was an underwater bomb or something.

Submitted

Great concept; it’s so unique! The visuals are really nice, too.

Submitted

Very interesting gameplay concept! The avoiding sound made me jump like crazy the first time I heard it!

Submitted

Absolutely wonderful. Very compelling atmosphere, great sounds and music, the second and third night filled me with dread (in a good way). I just wish there was more of an ending. I also love lighthouses. This game is definitely up there. Excellent job!

Submitted

Good game with good graphics, good entry

Submitted(+1)

Great job, the third night was a big surprise, I was expecting something a lot more relaxing :P

Developer(+1)

I'm so happy to hear you played all the way to the end, we spent a lot of effort on the final day and it means so much to me that you committed to finishing the game. Thank you :)

Submitted(+1)

I wasn't hard to keep playing, the game was fun!

Submitted

Wow the use of theme and limitation is done so well! Well done, i really enjoyed playing

Submitted

The water pixel style definitely makes this stand out! How light interacts with it was very cool. 

How the ships moved was interesting as well but I feel like I bypassed a lot of the game since spinning the light around rapidly seemed to be enough to satisfy the ship into not running into stuff. The ghosts and monster helped to curb that gameplay but when they were not there I couldn't help but do that. Would like to see more emphasis on the guiding! When I played it more as 'intended' I can definitely see the charm in being the light keeper. 

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Hey PonPonSmite, I've taken your feedback and added a power curve to the game. Now there's a shop where you can improve the lighthouse, and the rotation of the beam is now Slerp'd and limited by how much you've upgraded. I've also added a system for refilling the lantern oil which I'm hoping will keep the game more engaging.


If you have time to give this another look/rating , I would be so interested in what you think of the changes! :)


I should have some time to play your game tomorrow

Submitted

The water is so good it's almost real! Jokes apart, the idea is very clever and it should be implemented in real life lightouses :-D Well done!

Submitted

I don't think that's how lighthouses work, but an interesting concept for a game. Very nice effects with the lights on the the water.

Developer (2 edits)

Thanks! I like how that's what broke your suspension of disbelief and not the ghosts or monsters lol

Submitted

This game is a little hard and really beautyful (seeing the staff explains why :o)
Playing it in fullscreen decentered the vision (only bottom left quarter was visible as the black circle didnt expand enough in fullscreen mode) and I got an error launching 3rd level

Good job !

Developer (2 edits)

Hey Phoque, there seems to be an issue with chrome, specifically when the browser is zoomed in. If you play again, try making sure zoom is set to 100%. 

I'll try fixing the error you sent, thank you very much for reporting!


Those errors should be fixed

Viewing comments 24 to 5 of 24 · Next page · Last page